This will be my regular feature blog on the Jays, an offering of my thoughts and ramblings after each series they play over the course of the 2010 season. I hope you enjoy what will surely be a cornucopia of insight, rants and plenty of non-sensical musings along the way. Enjoy!

The Breakdown:

The Jays (2-1) took two of three on the road against a Texas Rangers team expected to contend in the AL West thanks to timely hitting, a four-homer explosion from Vernon Wells and a trio of strong starts from Shaun Marcum, Brian Tallet and Ricky Romero.

My Thoughts:

The contract’s still way too big, but Wells has done all he can to live up to it over the season’s first three games. After all, $21 million seems like a bargain for a guy on pace to hit 216 home runs this year. Will Wells cool off? Of course he will, but a strong start is a strong start.

Alex Anthopoulos kept much of last year’s bullpen intact and even added Kevin Gregg to help stabilize a unit that seemed primed to take on a heavy workload in light of the team’s young, inexperienced rotation. Anthopoulos certainly wasn’t expecting a trio of quality starts to open the season that saw the ‘pen throw just 5.2 total innings.

Speaking of the starters, is Tallet secretly the key to the rotation? Eyes rolled when the big lefty was announced as the No. 2 starter behind Marcum to open the season, but his 7-9 record and 5.32 ERA belied a season in which he earned 14 quality starts despite shifting back and forth from starter to reliever and vice versa. Could he thrive in a set, determined starting role? Two earned runs over 6.2 innings in a winning effort over Texas is a good start.

Cito Gaston is the loyal type. Okay, so this isn’t exactly news, given that the same could have been said for him over his first 11 managerial seasons. But that loyalty has already been established this season, as could be clearly seen when he stuck with Jason Frasor as closer despite a blown save in the opener and let Romero finish up the seventh inning of Thursday’s game even as the youngster was ready to hand over the ball. It is that loyalty that makes Gaston a player’s manager.

You have to figure it’s been a tough few days for Jamie Campbell. It’s understandable that Rogers Sportsnet had to take Campbell out of the colour position in light of fan complaints, but it can’t be easy for him to throw to new colour guy Buck Martinez in the booth after a Connected update, which he had to do several times during Sportsnet’s telecasts.

Up Next:

Toronto heads to Baltimore for their first AL East clash of the season. The three-game set starts tomorrow at 3:05 PM, with Brandon Morrow making his Jays’ debut against the O’s Brad Bergesen.

And yeah, I should have posted my thoughts on it, but the Adieny Hechavarria signing was huge, not just because he could be playing for us as early as next year, but also for what it signals for future talent abroad.

I like AA’s aggressive approach, considering he nabbed Hechavarria and reportedly didn’t miss out on Aroldis Chapman by much. And it sounds like the new Rogers guy will let the team spend if need be.